Determining the gender of your white tree frog can be important for several reasons. Knowing whether you have a male or female frog can help with naming, managing noise levels, planning for breeding, and more. While juvenile frogs can be difficult to sex, there are some reliable ways to identify male and female white tree frogs.
Why Identify Your Frog’s Gender?
Here are some of the top reasons for determining your white tree frog’s gender
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Naming – Giving your new pet an appropriate name is easier when you know its gender Since these frogs can live up to 16 years in captivity, choosing a fitting name is important
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Noise Management – Male white tree frogs croak frequently to attract mates. This croaking can get quite loud, especially in a small indoor space. If noise is a concern, identify males and house them away from bedrooms or other quiet areas.
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Breeding – Those interested in breeding white tree frogs need a proven male and female pair. Identifying gender is crucial for breeding efforts.
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Size – Female white tree frogs grow larger than males. If size is a factor in your choice of frog, knowing the gender can help.
Determining Gender in Adult Frogs
Adult white tree frogs over 9-12 months old can be reliably sexed using these characteristics:
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Size – Mature females are larger than males of the same age. Focus on body length rather than overall mass, which varies.
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Throat Color – Adult males develop dark gray or black throat skin called a “beard.” Females retain a light throat without dark coloring.
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Croaking – Mature males croak frequently, especially when presented with calls from another male. Loud, persistent croaking indicates a male.
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Nuptial Pads – During breeding season, males develop dark nuptial pads on their thumbs used to grip females. Visible pads equal a male frog.
In mature frogs, throat coloration and the presence of nuptial pads provide the most definitive evidence of gender. Listen for croaking as another reliable clue.
Identifying Younger Frogs
Frogs under 9 months old can be tricky to sex using physical characteristics alone. However, young males can be identified by listening for croaking, which starts before maturity.
Try playing a recording of white tree frog calls to entice young males to respond and reveal themselves. Croaking is a clear giveaway that a frog is male, even in juveniles. Handling frogs gently to check for emerging nuptial pads can also determine male gender early on.
Absence of croaking and lack of nuptial pads in a young frog likely indicates a female, but cannot be used to guarantee gender at this age. Wait until at least 9 months old before confirming female sex.
Housing Considerations by Gender
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Males – Their constant croaking makes males best suited to aquariums in basements, studies, or spare rooms. Keep males away from bedrooms and frequently used living spaces.
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Females – Quieter females can be kept comfortably in bedrooms or living areas since noise won’t be an issue. Their larger size may also make females a better visual display frog for high-traffic spaces.
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Pairs – Proven male-female pairs should be kept away from noise-sensitive rooms. Keep paired frogs in basement or hobby rooms to avoid potential croaking disturbances.
Identifying gender lets you plan frog housing appropriately to manage noise and take advantage of size differences. Set yourself and your frogs up for success by sexing them early on if possible.
White tree frogs are best sexed once mature at 9-12 months old, using throat coloring, nuptial pads, and croaking sounds as reliable indicators of gender. However, early croaking can identify young males well before sexual maturity.
Knowing your frog’s sex allows proper naming, noise management, breeding planning, and size considerations when housing your new pet. Pay close attention to emerging physical and behavioral differences as white tree frogs develop to determine whether you have added a male or female to the family.
Community Q&ASearch
- Question What do I feed my baby frogs?
Community Answer You can feed them algae wafers until they are just getting their legs. Then, they can eat fruit flies and the like. - Question My frog is getting darker. What does this mean?
Community Answer It could be from stress or something abnormal in their environment. Check to make sure that the tank/water isnt too warm. Also, make sure your frog is getting the proper nutrients from its food. - Question How do I catch wild frogs?
Community Answer If you live near a pond or creek, they are commonly found in the shallow end. During breeding season, there will be multiple tadpoles. Keep the tadpoles until they turn into frogs. The size of the tadpoles will vary the size of the frog, thus, small tadpoles will be small frogs, and large tadpoles will be large frogs.
- Most male frogs have mud colored throats. When the female is ready to mate the throat is speckled with brown. Thanks Helpful 0 Not Helpful 0
- In some species of tree frogs, males and females have consistently different color patterning (i.e., females are one color and males are another). However, this varies from species to species and is untrue for many tree frogs. If you are unsure about your frog, look up its species in a biological encyclopedia. Thanks Helpful 0 Not Helpful 0
- Looking for a frogs genitals is not usually a good way to tell its sex. Male frogs testicles are inside their bodies like ovaries, making it difficult (if not impossible) to determine a frogs sex simply by looking between its legs. Thanks Helpful 0 Not Helpful 0
- In some species of frogs, you can gently grasp the frog where a male holds on to the female while mating. Male frogs will let out a big croak and struggle to get loose. Dont know if this is true for tree frogs, but with bullfrogs, the results are pretty dynamic!
- Be gentle with frogs, dont hurt them, and try not to scare them. Consider releasing a frog if you cannot provide insects, humidity, adequate care, water and a spacious container to house it in.
- Keep your frog healthy at all times. Learning its gender should be low priority in most cases, unless youre a frog breeder.
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To tell if your tree frog is male or female, measure its size, since females are typically half an inch larger than males. Next, check whether your frog has a vocal sack on its throat, which may look like baggy skin, because only males have vocal sacks. If youre still unsure, look out for specific behaviors that identify a male frog, such as croaking at night or humping objects. To learn what common behaviors are not unique to male or female frogs, read on!
How To Determine the Gender of a White’s Tree Frog
FAQ
How to tell if a white tree frog is male or female?
Males have a wrinkled, grayish-colored vocal sac underneath the throat region, while females have white throats.
How to tell the difference between a male and female gray tree frog?
Eastern Gray Treefrogs also have a bright yellow or orange coloring on the inside of their thighs that they can flash at predators to confuse them when they are under atack. Male and female treefrogs look the same except that the underside of the males’ chins is much darker.
Can you house 2 white tree frogs together?
You can keep more than one frog together in a single habitat, as long as they are of similar size; otherwise, your larger frogs may attempt to eat the smaller …Oct 13, 2023
Do only male tree frogs croak?
Talk Overview. In frog species, typically male frogs call, while females stay silent. Dr. Johana Goyes-Vallejos shows that in the smooth guardian frog of Borneo (Limnonectes palavanensis) this is not the case and that female frogs call, too, producing spontaneous vocalizations to attract males.